This disclosure pertains to systems and methods that may be used to increase the information content of a mobile device. In general, mobile devices are currently operated as a communication medium, particularly where the informer and the informee are known to each other and preconfigured to communicate. Some mobile devices may be configured by the user to register location information such as by using satellite, signal information. However, typical mobile devices in use today underutilize the information potential of which mobile devices are capable. That information content, when realized, may be used for a variety of functions/operations such as, but not limited to, determining a location for the mobile device (particularly where satellite signals are not present), determining a path taken by a mobile device, tracking a mobile device, determining interactions between mobile devices and/or between a mobile device and an information-generating device, and deducing behavior of a user of the mobile device based on any of the above. This behavioral information may be useful for the user, vendors, police, etc.
Of particular interest are information types that have some contextual relationship to location. As a non-limiting example, consider a mobile device that is located in a store. Assume that the device is initially in a state of zero information regarding the store, i.e., the device does not know where it is in the store, has no idea where items of interest to the user may be found, has no knowledge of any store special offers, if the store is in a mall, has no knowledge of where other features of interest in the mall may be located, and has no knowledge of current activities of interest that may be in the mall.
In this setting, an objective of the user would be to gather information of whatever sort, including the items listed above, as the mobile moves around in the store. Furthermore, just as one would have found out about things in the distant past where, one obtained information while walking around and asking people one passes or meets, the mobile may operate in an analogous manner today albeit while not involving any actual physical query directed at some other mobile user.
In an embodiment, mobile devices have several features that will soon be universally present on nearly every mobile device. These include a magnetometer that measures magnetic field, an accelerometer that measure acceleration, and a gyroscope that measures angular rate. All of these measurements are made with respect to axes that are fixed on the mobile. If the mobile device is viewed as a rectangle by assuming the thickness of the device is trivial, then in an embodiment the x-axis is an axis parallel to the shorter side of the rectangle and passing through the center of the rectangle. The y-axis is an axis parallel to the longer side of the rectangle and passing through the center of the rectangle. The z-axis is an axis normal to the rectangle and passing through the center of the rectangle. Typically, the z-axis is defined by the right hand corkscrew rule, or equivalently as the cross product of vectors along the x and y axes. In this context one could also visualize a world frame with axes X, Y, and Z. Generally, the mobile frame (x, y, z) and the world frame (X, Y, Z) are not identical. The mobile orientation is a measure of its relative orientation with respect to the world frame.
Additionally, in other embodiments, the mobile device may also have other sensors such as as barometer, a light sensor, a proximity sensor, a temperature sensor or a humidity sensor. The mobile device may also be capable of making other measurements. These measurements may include the ID or MAC address and additionally measurements of power on any Wi-Fi Bluetooth transmitter or other transmitter. The mobile may also take a video, or pictures or scans of QR codes, or listen to audio via the microphone, or other similar information from information-generating sources.
In an embodiment it is assumed that there is some mobile application (herein referred to as an “App”) to which many users for example in the store setting referred to above) subscribe. The App may be either manually activated or may be automatically turned on by recognition of some feature of the environment. Non-limiting examples of the latter are a particular Bluetooth beacon being within range or the presence of a particular Wi-Fi access point within range.
Embodiments of the present disclosure view elemental behavior in time using a construction referred to herein as “snippets” from which may be formed, in an embodiment, geometric objects (which may be color coded) known as “linkages” which have to be fit into a topological framework such as a map and/or a building plan. Certain embodiments use ideas derived from the A1 literature on automated solution of jigsaw puzzles to perform this fitting.